Pakistan achieved their third consecutive ODI series victory, away from home as Mohammad Rizwan and Co handed South Africa a colossal loss in the second of the three-match series and hence took a 2-0 unassailable lead on Thursday, December 19 with a game to go. Pakistan led by Kamran Ghulam’s positive intent late on the back of fifties from Rizwan and former skipper Babar Azam, posted a massive score of 329, which proved to be too much for the Proteas in the end even though Heinrich Klaasen did put in a valiant effort.
Shaheen Afridi, whose first spell didn’t go according to the plan, ended up taking four wickets in as many overs he bowled in the latter part of the match to completely shut the shop for the Proteas, including the big scalp of Klaasen, who fell short by just three runs off a scintillating hundred. Klaasen had no support from the other end as Afridi and Naseem Shah ensured that South Africa couldn’t build any partnerships in order to chase a strong score.
Skipper Temba Bavuma and Tony de Zorzi got through the first few overs of both Afridi and Naseem safely before the latter struck. Rassie van der Dussen came in, got a start, the partnership seemed to be building and de Zorzi was dismissed by Abrar Ahmed. Similarly, Aiden Markram hit a couple of shots before being dismissed by Abrar again.
The Proteas batters were getting the starts but no one really challenged Pakistan to take the game away from them. David Miller stitched a crucial 72-run partnership with Klaasen as the duo seemed to be holding the fort again and again for South Africa in white-ball cricket but it wasn’t to be on Thursday.
Klaasen was smashing it to all parts but Miller was a bit slow to get off. Just when Miller decided to go, Afridi sent him back with a beauty of a nipbacker. After that South Africa kept losing wickets at regular intervals with Klaasen at one end but he could do only so much, all alone.
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Earlier, it was the ever-dependable duo of Babar and Rizwan, who shored the responsibility in the middle before Ghulam dazzled at the end. Babar achieved his first half-century in international cricket in 22 innings as even though the partnership and his innings in particular, could have come at a better rate but the 115-run stand was important for Pakistan to protect wickets for the final flourish.
Ghulam slammed an attractive 63 off just 32 balls as he single-handedly took the game away from South Africa as the total close to 300 was always a difficult chase. This was Pakistan’s fifth consecutive ODI series as they are building up nicely towards the Champions Trophy in two months’ time.
